The four factors with the greatest influence on your metabolism
I'm sure you've heard the word metabolism, probably too many times, but do you know what it is?
You don't need a degree in biochemistry or nutrition, but once you know the four factors with the greatest impact on metabolism, you can use that to your advantage.
But first of all, it is important to know, what is a calorie?
Calorie is a unit of measurement, more precisely, it is the amount of heat needed to raise 1 gram of water, 1 º C.
Everyone has a different calorie requirement, so there is no global measure.
Metabolism pyramid
The pyramid consists of:
- BMR? basal metabolic rate
- NEAT (+NEPA) ? Thermogenesis of activity without exercise
- TEA? Thermal effect of physical activity
- TEF? Thermic effect of food
Basal metabolic rate ? BMR
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the number of calories an individual burns daily at rest, just enough to breathe, reason and survive.
If we have to give weight to this pyramid factor, it is about 60% of our daily caloric expenditure.
This value is directly associated with body weight, body composition, gender, age and genetics.
Inevitably, in general, a larger body has a higher BMR.
Generally speaking, this is the reason why women have a lower calorie requirement than men.
Activity thermogenesis without exercise ? NEAT
NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Expenditure) is the number of calories burned to stay stable, whether typing on Facebook or performing other activities that are not directly related to physical exercise.
If we include NEPA (Non effort physical activity) in this category, it is possible to consider activities such as walking the dog, cleaning the house, etc.
It should be noted that this is highly variable, both from day to day and from person to person.
Thermal effect of physical activity ? TEA
TEA (Termogenic Effect of Activity) is the number of calories burned during exercise.
Usually, and based on our case, they are calories lost during cardiovascular training sessions or weight training.
The amount of energy expended in TEA is clearly dependent on the duration and intensity of the training.
Thermic effect of food ? TEF
For some it may come as a surprise, but yes, we also burn calories while eating.
Digestion is an active metabolic process.
Who has never felt hot, or sweaty, after a big meal? Especially after large amounts of protein.
This TEF factor (Termogenic Effect of Food) represents about 5-10% of our daily caloric expenditure.
You will find some more information about this phenomenon here.
In view of the above, let us now consider all the variables.
Energy consumed = BMR + NEAT + TEA + TEF
There are people who tend to minimize bills, with the theory that the law of thermodynamics is simple, just subtract only the calories ingested from the calories expended.
As you can see, predicting our caloric expenditures is a more complex process than the one that often makes us want to.
Why does basal metabolism differ between individuals?
Each person burns a certain number of calories per day, this value being the basal metabolic rate (BMR), thermal effect of physical activity (TEA), thermogenesis of activity without exercise (NEAT) and thermal effect of food (TEF).
As such, it makes no sense to try to find the perfect formula, or the magic calculator, to find your number of necessary maintenance calories.
The most efficient way to do this is to monitor your estimated NEAT, TEA and BMR, as well as possible, and in addition, your total calorie, in order to find approximately your maintenance calories.
To more easily understand the immeasurable difference, a person with an extremely active job can burn up to 500 more calories per day, compared to a person with a sedentary job.
And now, what to do with this information?
Basically, by understanding how your body works, you can monitor in more detail what happens daily.
Usually, the people who pay the most attention to these details are people in the process of losing fat.
For these people, here are some tips that can be useful.
- The BMR will inevitably go down.
It is the body's way of defending itself from calorie restriction.
- NEAT will tend to decrease, due to caloric restriction and extra tiredness, and it is normal to rest more.
Here the proposal is to lift as many times as possible, consuming the greatest number of calories, which do not create fatigue to the one that already exists from TEA.
- People tend to bet on increasing their calorie deficit by increasing their ASD in the form of cardiovascular exercise, or metabolic exercise / circuits.
It can be a bad idea, considering that if there is no monitoring and management of fatigue, the tendency may be to lower BMR and NEAT.
- To ensure the most efficient TEF, always bet on enough protein.
In addition to being very important for the maintenance of muscle mass at this stage, it contributes to higher TEF values.
[toggle title=?Bibliography? state=?close? ]Energetic balance
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Article written by Team Sik Nutrition
[author image=?https://ginasiovirtual.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo-sik.jpg? ]Team Sik Nutrition, is a recent group of people passionate about the world of Fitness. The Team's focus is to guide, educate and motivate those interested in achieving their health and fitness/performance goals. All this sharing is based on scientific facts and the experience of the Team members.
The CEO of Team Sik Nutrition, is João Gonçalves. Amateur powerlifter, passionate about Fitness and writing articles.
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